Decca tree

The Decca Tree is a spaced microphone array most commonly used for orchestral recording. It was originally developed as a type of stereo A–B recording method adding a center fill. The technique was developed in the early 1950s and first commercially used in 1954 by Arthur Haddy, Roy Wallace, and later refined by engineer Kenneth Ernest Wilkinson and his team at Decca Records and its recording studios, to provide a strong stereo image.

The Decca Tree setup evolved from the idea of a minimal recording technique using a pair of microphones. The first system was developed by Roy Wallace. The microphone triangle was placed about 3 to 3.6 m high above the stage level, near the conductor. The microphone system is not properly in front of the orchestra, but more "into" the orchestra.

Two more microphones can be added and placed on the sides (called "outrigger microphones"), approximately at about 2/3 of the stage width, between the conductor and the outer orchestra boundary.